Film project focuses on Provo's music scene (+video)

Provo is a strange, obscure town, and this place is consistently putting out these great bands. A lot of people have this weird impression — that it’s just this weird place. I think people are just going to want to see why it’s doing so well.—Derrick Lytle

Photographer, filmmaker and recent BYU graduate Derrick Lytle has decided it’s time to make a film about Provo's music scene, which was the subject of a feature last week in the Deseret News.

“It’s something I’ve really wanted to do for a long time,” Lytle said of the film, which he calls “The Provo Scene.”

The project recently was launched on Kickstarter. Donations will go toward music licenses, travel, film festival entries and rewards for backers of the film.

Lytle started attending house shows at Velour and Muse as a student as well as other concerts downtown, and realized the talent pool in Provo ran very deep. The idea for a film stemmed from there.

“Provo is a strange, obscure town, and this place is consistently putting out these great bands,” Lytle said. “A lot of people have this weird impression — that it’s just this weird place. I think people are just going to want to see why it’s doing so well.”

Lytle plans on taking an in-depth look at all aspects of music in Provo, from venues to producers to bands to local culture, while also diving into the history of the scene.

“Every day I get messages and emails from people exposing me to new aspects of the scene that I wasn’t familiar with,” he said on his Kickstarter website. “No shallow Google searches here. I am speaking with real people hearing real stories.”

It is also important for Lytle to acknowledge people who play a much larger role than they are given credit for.

“There are a lot of key people that go without recognition,” he said, mentioning Corey Fox, owner of Velour and mentor to many of these successful bands; and Drew Danburry and Joshua James, who have music careers of their own but stay in Provo to help other musicians.